The Minute
by Taylor Huff
Summary: The atomic bomb.. Something whose effects on super-viruses are unknown. A minute more radiation exposure changes things, for the stranger. Zeus-centric.
1. The First Minute

By Taylor Huff

* * *

The atomic bomb.

The culmination of decades of research into radioactive isotopes. The power of science, used for warfare. A force that had wiped out entire cities in mere minutes, whose atomic payload vaporized bodies, leaving only charred shadows on the surface of the walls. A parody of everything life is, creating destruction, sickness, and much death.

Something whose effects on Super-viruses were unknown.

What if the military had looked into viral-warfare a bit earlier? What if Patient Zero was found quite a bit.. Before?

What if Alex Mercer had been just a little bit slow?

A single minute more radiation poisoning was enough. Zeus felt pain beyond pain, tearing through his blackened soul..

A single minute, and his memories of Everything were forfeit.

Only a primal intellect remained in the subject known as Zeus, and with everything that he was, he wanted escape. Thoughts, if they could be classified as such, echoed through the Web of Intrigue connected to him:

'Move. Move! MOVE!'

He had consumed enough physicists to know the basics of quantum mechanics. ...And he had acquired enough intellect to make use of the theories of beings of lesser power.

A single black blade materialized in the middle of the nuclear fallout. It was the sharpest blade ever forged by physical, or biological means. An unseen entity lifted the blade, and tore a hole in the fabric or reality.

The virus gathered itself together in the haze of great pain it was in, and thrust itself through the tear, which closed behind it.

Wisps of black smoke materialized in a suburban district close to London. The town was called Surrey. The Blacklight virus, knowing it wouldn't survive long without physical form, searched for the closest body, preferably of the deceased..

It found the form of Harry James Potter, a freezing babe on a doorstep.

The baby's life force wasn't entirely extinguished, but it being November, it was close enough not to matter. The black smoke flew forward, completely engulfing the small bundle of thin blankets.

And thus, in this manner, the primary viral strain of Blacklight.. Returned.

* * *

AN: I found most stories in this crossover kinda tacky, so I wrote this. Feel free to tell me what you think.


	2. The Second Minute

By Taylor Huff

* * *

The beings around him, living things as they were, had decided his name was Harry.

He thought it was a stupid name.

Petunia Dursley grew very frightened when, after a year staying in her house, Harry still had the form of a one-year old. A one year old Petunia had once witnessed Consume a squirrel.

He was more careful after that.

The genes of the little furry creature were surprisingly useless, about the only thing he decided to keep was the inbuilt, insane reaction time the thing's mind possessed. Most of the creatures mental processes related to sensing danger, movement, and the process of storing up food for later.

All of this mental deliberation occurred with Petunia Dursley screaming in the background. Now that he thought of it, why did the living need Two names, first and last? It seemed almost redundant, all he ever needed was one..

He was Zeus, end of story.

None of this 'Harry' thing made sense to him either. From what he had gathered, the other residents of his house declared this his name from words on a piece of parchment, of all things. The logic of the living was not just stupidity, but Incessant stupidity. To think that things should happen like this, in this way, simply because they thought so. Couldn't the meat-bags understand that some things just were? They seemed to delude themselves often, especially when it came to acquiring a mate. From his completely unbiased point of view, there was absolutely nothing desirable about Petunia, besides the fact that as a female of her species, she could produce offspring.

Stupid offspring, but offspring nonetheless.

And yet Vernon willingly stayed in the same abode as the undesirable flesh-bag, out of some demented sense of duty. If he were Vernon, he'd have been long gone. Couldn't he see the results of this pairing were less than inspiring? The young 'Dudley' ate like a fat cow already, and he was only two..

Come on, where was the desire to produce the next step in the evolutionary chain? To scion the stronger, better, smarter, or faster? He was a strain of infectious virus, barely classified as a living being, yet he had more survival instinct than most of the flesh-bags..

* * *

Zeus sat in a state of self-examination, something he hadn't needed to do in quite a while. The insane squirrel reaction time was being stubborn about being integrated into his system, although the part allowing snap decisions to new events seemed to be working just fine. Perhaps it was his lack of an ingrained response to danger.. The squirrel would instantly run away from everything, after all.

It was in this state of being, that Zeus found something new, something he'd never before encountered.. It was a mass of bluish energy, contained in a rough ball shape. Every so often, the mass would spasm, and the unknown energy would leak into the rest of his body.

This behavior was decidedly living being-ish, which Zeus found he didn't like very much..

So he ate it.

After consuming the part of the energy mass containing a semi-consciousness, Zeus felt waves of euphoria. He felt powerful, in an ever-changing sort of way!

Looking into the pseudo-memories the energy bug contained, Zeus was amused to learn the being referred to itself as a spawn of Magic.

Wait a minute..

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AN: The second installment. By the way, I recently read the story Variant Strain, a Spider-man / Prototype crossover, it was very good. To the reviewer that suggested Alex be the one in Harry's body, you're kind of right. The virus had most of Alex' memories erased, but is what Alex was in it's core. Harry was just a baby, half-dead at that.. It makes sense that Zeus' persona would be the most dominant.


	3. The Third Minute

By Taylor Huff

* * *

The entity referred to as Zeus had decided he had stayed put long enough.

It should be noted that the last time he made this decision, the full might of the United States Army could not contain him..

He debated with himself the merits of making another tear in the fabric of the universe. After summoning the black blade once more and taking an experimental swipe, he found the blade met some form of resistance.. He could probably muscle his way through it, but it was just as well he didn't.

There was no guarantee the other side would be viable to support life, even for a super-virus such as himself. Much as he was loathe to admit, there were some things he could only just barely survive or regenerate from.. Being in the epicenter of a nuke had reduced him to the black smoke of his component molecules, he had no desire to try for two...

Plus, he was curious.. This version of Earth had an advanced form of genetic engineering, something he hadn't thought of before. If he could eat a few of the top scientists, he could almost literally create his own powers, by creating super-animals to consume.

This idea was starting to sound very appealing.

* * *

Petunia Dursley didn't utter a single word when she found her home's cupboard completely empty a few days into the new year.. She was just glad the freak was no longer her problem to deal with.

That.. Thing hadn't grown at all in months, simply unnatural..

She informed her husband that they were back down to one toddler in the house. He only responded with a gruff statement of:

"Good riddance."

* * *

The baby known to absolutely no one but himself as Zeus crawled down the streets of downtown Surrey. He finally found some poor sap to pick him up, and with a swipe of a much smaller blade-arm, he had gained the form of someone much taller.

Sadly, the guy was a general, run of the mill idiot, and knew nothing at all of advanced genetic engineering.

But Zeus did notice something a bit different.. When he retracted his feeding tendrils, he suddenly felt he had acquired more than just biomass and memories..

It felt like he had absorbed the man's skills.

While a stupid nobody, the man was pretty good at throwing things accurately, darts especially. He had won a tidy sum at the local bars once in a while for these skills.. Skills that Zeus could feel engrained in his arms, for him alone to make use of..

Maybe eating that energy bug had been a good idea.

Since Zeus was still a bit hungry, he absent-mindedly reformed his blade-arm, and began what the news stations would come to call The After New-Years Massacre.

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AN: I plan on explaining a bit more about what happened when Zeus ate his magical core sometime next chapter. Also, to the reviewer who mentioned this act could make Zeus uber powerful, you're right, but having all of Zeus' biomass be a magic core is a bit much. I think I'll assume the energy of magical cores requires a rough spherical shape, but Zeus will still be able to modify his own core, and likewise be very magically powerful. Review please.


End file.
